updated 05:15 pm EDT, Wed August 11, 2010

Rumored update would still lack 1080p

Apple is indeed making some major overhauls to the Apple TV, a source claimed this afternoon. One of the most significant is simply a name change, to the iTV. More important, though, is the addition of apps, Engadget said. Unmentioned is whether iPad or iPhone apps will be compatible with the new device, or even if iTV titles will be distributed through the App Store.

The source adds however that the iTV will still be limited to 720p video, despite 1080p now being the de facto HD standard. The restriction is allegedly a matter of "much internal debate" at Apple, but based on the technical limits of the A4 processor, which may be too slow to handle the resolution. The iPad and iPhone 4 are also stuck at 720p.

The iTV is otherwise expected to fall in line with earlier rumors. These have called for an iPhone 4-sized device, costing $99. It could have as little as 16GB of flash storage, but this would be compensated for by the introduction of iTunes streaming, in theory providing competition for services like Netflix. An announcement of the iTV is predicted for sometime this fall.

they've already thought of a way

called this

Funny how I laid this out a couple months ago and everyone downranked me.
This isn't the total story though. Apple will be using iAds in this new box, you can guarantee that. It's how they'll get the networks to play ball with tv streams.

Considering DirecTV just announced today they'll be using Google's GoogleTV ads in their devices, this is shaping up to be yet another battlefield in the war between Apple and Google.

What is it with American writers?

Just because there is no ITV in the US doesn't mean Apple will be free to use the name - it's been the name of the original British commercial TV network for over 40 years. But every time there are rumours of changes to the Apple TV the blogs and news sites come out with the same unresearched rubbish about it being called the iTV. In your dreams.

Still, in Britain we are currently developing the CNN computer brand, the General Electric power supply utility, and the CoCa Coaler mining drill.

comment title

I would be very interested if it includes NetFlix. I could care less about Hulu after their recent scandal trying to charge people $10 a month AND include commercials! But NetFlix would surely make me buy an iTV. And as for the name, I much prefer iTV too, lets hope Apple gets through that pathetic little public access channel and gets the name they deserve, trust me, Apple deserves it far more then the other guys that have it.

Not just ITV

iTV

I'd never heard of an iTV, but there's no way they could change the name to iTV without paying a boatload of money to El Gato.

Unless Apple tried to push some lame argument that "Well, they do recording, we don't so there's no conflict" or "They're spelled differently, how can you complain?".

It isn't going iTV. In fact, since Apple still hasn't figured out whether it is or isn't a hobby with the company, AppleTV makes the most sense (you know, keep the company name in the title, rather than some overused letter).

devices

Remember when Apple was all about making great devices that just worked and left the content to the content people. Why are they wasting time/resources with battling Netflix and Hulu and the rest, when they could just come up with licensing strategies to hook in with them (like Tivo does with Netflix and Amazon and the like, and apple has with YouTube) and just be done with it?

Re: 720p...

Your Apple TV does support a video screen resolution of 1080, however, your source media is either 480 (standard) or 720 (high definition). Apple doesn't offer 1080 videos on iTunes due to both technical requirements and shear size. Think a HD (720) movie file is huge at about 4 GBs, increase that to 1080 and your looking at about 10 - 12 GBs.